Situation Vacant – Event Secretary

Have you ever wondered what the Secretary of the Meeting does? Well, the club needs someone to take this on for the Llandow Sprint from next year, so this could be your chance to find out! Here, Ady Taylor explains what the job entails, and if you fancy helping the club in its time of need then contact Matt for more details.

When the date of the event is agreed

Along with the Competition Secretary, invite championships and clubs, and record acceptances. This is normally done on the basis that the ones that were invited last year are invited again with additional ones approached if numbers were low or if there is another tie with that club that makes it appropriate to invite them.

Arrange for timekeepers, scrutineers and ambulance/rescue. A simple case of booking them in and agreeing what they are providing. Changes may have been made following wash up meetings from last year.

Call meetings of the organising team, normally only 2 or 3 per sprint. Record and distribute minutes from these meetings.

2 to 3 months before the event

Write Supplementary Regulations with input from the rest of the organising team. This isn’t as daunting as it seems. The ones from last year are used as a starting point and it is then just a case of changing the dates, changes to invites and any other change that has been agreed

Apply for permit from the MSA, using their online form or postal form. The MSA will send the permit to you and tell you who the MSA steward is.

Distribute SRs to championships and clubs by email. The Entries Secretary will email them to previous competitors.

At close of entries

Write Final Instructions with input from the rest of the organising team. Like the SRs, these are a revision of the FIs issued last year with any last minute information added that needs to be communicated to competitors.

Send SRs, FIs and entry list by email to timekeepers, scrutineers and ambulance/rescue.

On the day

Along with the entries secretary, run the drivers signing-on. Check that drivers have the correct licence and championship/club membership card.

Greet the MSA Steward, provide him with any information he needs, and introduce him to other officials.

Check that timekeepers, scrutineers and ambulance/rescue sign-on and have all the information they need to do their work. They are all used to doing this so will simply get on with what they need to do.

Check that all drivers present have signed-on and record total number. Inform course control/timekeepers of any no shows or class changes.

The MSA steward will have several forms that you will be asked to complete. Rescue vehicle details is the only one he needs before the event starts: he will often ask for this directly from the rescue vehicle. There is a form that records the number of signed-on competitors, this has to match the number that is also recorded on the permit. Any non-production of licence forms need to be authenticated by the MSA steward. And the last form records the fire extinguisher details and timekeepers equipment details. At the end of the day he will collect these forms from you along with a copy of the results, and the scrutineers report (they will bring this to you during the day).

Through the rest of the day you need to be available as a point of contact.

After the event

Either on the day or afterwards, ensure that the permit fees are paid, along with timekeepers, ambulance and scrutineers. You will need to get cheques from the treasurer for these.

The last thing to do after the event is to have a “wash-up” meeting and record any changes that need to be made for the following year.